Wei Caiwei immediately checked the breathing of the other four people—they were all still alive. She immediately opened the door and went out to find Wet Nurse Song. “One person is already dead. Who has entered this room?”
Wet Nurse Song hadn’t expected a death to occur. After a brief moment of shock, she shook her head and said, “The door wasn’t locked, but these five went crazy last night, even convulsing, as if possessed by evil spirits. Everyone was afraid to approach here, so no one should have come.”
At this moment, Chief Eunuch Huang Jin of the Ceremonial Directorate arrived upon hearing the news and immediately ordered men from the Imperial Stables Guard Battalion to carry away the four living people and one corpse. “To protect the nobles and the emperor’s health, patients and the dead cannot remain in the palace. Send these four who are still breathing to the Charity Hall for treatment—they can return to duty once they recover. The corpse must be immediately transported out of the Forbidden City through the side gate and cannot remain here.”
Wei Caiwei said urgently, “This person’s cause of death is unclear. Could we keep him at the Charity Hall for autopsy before cremation?”
“No,” Huang Jin said. “Immortal Lan said that people killed by evil spirits are unclean and must be cremated immediately. What’s the point of examining someone who died from demonic possession?”
Upon hearing this, Wei Caiwei immediately understood that everything was within Lan Daoxing’s calculations—murder to silence witnesses, then destroy the evidence.
As a mere minor female physician, Wei Caiwei had no grounds to argue with Huang Jin’s orders. However, she wouldn’t give up easily—she still had a chance to expose the fraud of this mystical charade.
Wei Caiwei didn’t even have time to put on her gray squirrel fur cloak. Grabbing an iron shovel used for scooping charcoal, she went out. In her desperation, she could only gamble on her luck.
She speculated that when the Imperial Guards heard the commotion and rushed to the scene, the palace servants pretending to be mad couldn’t have run far to bury the dog’s corpse. So the most likely burial spot should be the pine and cypress flowerpots closest to the incident location.
Wei Caiwei walked out of the palace hall into the main courtyard, only to discover that all the pine and cypress flowerpots in the courtyard had disappeared, replaced by pots of winter plum trees budding with flowers!
Wei Caiwei asked a sweeping palace servant, “When were the flowerpots changed? Who ordered the change?”
The palace servant said, “Immortal Lan said the positioning of the pine and cypress potted landscapes affected the feng shui of Yude Palace, easily attracting evil spirits. Plum blossoms bring five blessings, and since it’s winter now and winter plum flowers are seasonally appropriate, all the pines and cypresses in the courtyard were replaced with winter plums.”
Wei Caiwei’s hand holding the iron shovel trembled, but she forced a smile on her face. “Immortal Lan really is… so thorough in his considerations.”
Too late.
In this lifetime, I’m fighting alone with little support. Chen Jingji isn’t influential enough yet, while Lan Daoxing’s power in the palace is deeply entrenched—I can’t defeat him.
Must I wait like in my previous life—four years until Chen Jingji has grown his wings and can cooperate with me to send Lan Daoxing to the western paradise?
A northern wind howled past, and Wei Caiwei’s heart was colder than the north wind.
“Doctor Wei, why did you come out with an iron shovel?” Lan Daoxing was carrying a stack of freshly drawn talismans written in cinnabar to present to Noble Consort Shang when he saw Wei Caiwei contemplating by a pot of winter plums in the courtyard.
This wasn’t the time to reveal that she knew about Lan Daoxing’s mystical fraud. Wei Caiwei said, “An old habit from practicing medicine—whenever I see medicinal herbs, I want to harvest them, otherwise I always feel like I’m missing something good. I came out for a morning walk and saw poria growing parasitically at the roots of the pine and cypress flowerpots. Poria roots are commonly used medicinal materials that usually grow parasitically under pine tree roots. So I brought the iron shovel to dig, but arrived a step too late—they’ve been replaced with winter plum trees.”
Lan Daoxing praised her, “A physician’s benevolent heart, always thinking of healing and saving people. Doctor Wei, despite your young age, your medical skills are so accomplished. Noble Consort Shang turned from danger to safety last night thanks to your acupuncture and prescriptions. This poor Daoist greatly admires you.”
Wei Caiwei smiled, “How embarrassing, how embarrassing. It’s because Immortal Lan’s power is profound—ascending the altar to perform rituals, subduing demons and eliminating evil, capturing the black specter monster at its source—that’s why Noble Consort Shang turned from danger to safety. My medical skills were merely adding flowers to brocade.”
The two exchanged mutual flattery, filling the air with a cheerful atmosphere.
After Lan Daoxing delivered the talismans to Noble Consort Shang, he returned to the West Garden Daoist temple and asked an imperial physician, “Does wild poria grow under pine trees?”
The imperial physician bowed and said, “Poria grows embracing wood—this is indeed so.”
Upon hearing this, Lan Daoxing set aside his suspicions and no longer doubted Wei Caiwei.
Wei Caiwei stayed in Yude Palace for nearly a month, until Shang Zhaoyi—that’s right, Shang Qinglan had been promoted two more ranks. Emperor Jiajing, to comfort his frightened beloved consort, skipped the rank of Jieyu entirely and directly promoted her to Zhaoyi.
Only after Shang Zhaoyi had completely recovered and even gained two jin of weight, returning to her radiant appearance, did Wei Caiwei leave the palace. During this month, Shang Zhaoyi and she talked about almost everything, and their relationship grew even closer.
Wei Caiwei was currently weak and powerless, unable to defeat Lan Daoxing, so she first secured Shang Qinglan’s trust, chatting and playing with her. As long as Shang Qinglan liked her, time was on her side—she would still have opportunities.
Fortunately, Shang Qinglan was big-hearted and had the kind of personality that forgot pain once the wound healed. After the black specter incident, she indeed respected Lan Daoxing more than before, putting his talismans in her pouch to carry with her at all times. But respect wasn’t the same as affection.
Lan Daoxing had to play the role of a pure-hearted, desireless living immortal. Though he intended to curry favor with Shang Qinglan, her lively personality made her maintain respectful distance from this living immortal who had eliminated the black specter. Lan Daoxing had no way to control her.
Shang Qinglan gave many more rewards, saying, “I don’t know why I feel such a special connection with Doctor Wei. I just know that talking with you isn’t tiring at all—you understand me better than my own father. Before I even open my mouth, you know what I mean. I’ve thought about keeping you in the palace as a female official to always accompany me, but…”
“You have your own life. Always being in the palace with fine clothes and food gets boring—it’s not free. You have friends outside, and perhaps you’ll meet someone you like in the future and become husband and wife. If you stayed in the palace, you could only form a ceremonial marriage with a eunuch. It’s almost the twelfth lunar month and New Year is coming. Go back and prepare some things, celebrate the New Year with warmth and excitement. Whatever interesting new things happen in the marketplace outside, tell me about them next time you enter the palace.”
Shang Qinglan wasn’t truly foolish or purely self-centered. She actually understood quite a lot. She had even changed her inappropriate use of “I” to follow proper etiquette, getting used to referring to herself as “this palace.”
Wei Caiwei was moved in her heart. “Your Ladyship is a person blessed with good fortune. Try to live each day as happily as possible, and may your life be smooth and successful.”
Shang Qinglan laughed heartily. “I’ll take your auspicious words.”
Wei Caiwei glanced at the pouch at Shang Qinglan’s waist. “Your Ladyship must always wear Immortal Lan’s talismans on your person, especially when outside. Remember this.”
The reason was simple: the black specter was artificially created by Lan Daoxing, and he had drawn the talismans too. As long as Shang Qinglan always carried the talismans, Lan Daoxing wouldn’t release another black specter to frighten her.
Because doing so would prove that Lan Daoxing’s talismans weren’t effective—that he wasn’t a real immortal.
Shang Qinglan patted her pouch. “I remember. You can rest assured and return home.”
This time, because Wei Caiwei had saved and awakened Shang Qinglan, even Emperor Jiajing gave rewards—enough to fill five horse carriages. She selected the best gifts to present to Li Yiren, the matriarch of the Lu household, while taking her leave. “Thank you for taking me in, Li Yiren. With the New Year approaching, I must return home.”
Now that Wei Caiwei was a favored person before Shang Zhaoyi, Li Yiren’s attitude toward her was naturally different from before. Moreover, Li Yiren already considered Wang Daxia a prospective son-in-law, so naturally it wouldn’t be appropriate to have this “scandalous former lover” staying in their home for the New Year. After exchanging a few pleasantries, she served tea and saw her off.
After bidding farewell to Li Yiren, Wei Caiwei didn’t immediately return home but directed her carriage to take a detour to Prince Yu’s mansion—she had arranged with Li Jiubao last month to visit every few days before her monthly period to give her acupuncture treatments for her uterine cold deficiency and difficulty conceiving, helping to regulate her body.
Whether it was herself, Chen Jingji, or even Wang Daxia and Lu Ying, as well as the currently ascendant Shang Qinglan, they would all need to rely on Li Jiubao’s protection in the future.
Arriving at Prince Yu’s side gate, she handed her court physician’s calling card to the guard at the entrance. “Please trouble yourself to deliver this to Lady Li Xuanshi of the prince’s mansion.”
As a mere minor lady-in-waiting, Li Jiubao couldn’t make decisions in the prince’s inner residence. She needed to obtain Prince Yu’s consort’s permission first before Wei Caiwei could be summoned in for medical treatment.
Since she had to wait for some time and it was cold sitting in the carriage, the guard invited Wei Caiwei to get down and wait in the heated duty room for the summons.
Wei Caiwei thanked him and, holding a gold-inlaid gemstone hand warmer—such luxury items were naturally gifts from Shang Zhaoyi—followed the guard through the west side gate.
As soon as she stepped through, Wei Caiwei felt something was wrong: the gate was different. When she came last time, the side gate’s paint hadn’t been renewed in ages—pieces of red paint were drying up and peeling off in the wind and sand, like flakes of dandruff flying everywhere.
But now, the west side gate had been sanded down to remove the old paint and coated with fresh vermillion lacquer red as blood, looking brand new and giving it some of the dignity befitting a prince’s mansion.
What was going on? Wasn’t Prince Yu’s mansion so poor that the prince’s consort had to pawn her jewelry to get by, even being forced to desperately seek medical help from me? How did they have spare money to repaint?
Perhaps because New Year was approaching, they gritted their teeth and pawned more jewelry to repaint the gate for appearances?
While waiting for the summons, Wei Caiwei was still thinking about how to apologize to Prince Yu’s consort. She truly didn’t have the ability to help her get Vice Minister Yan Shifan of the Ministry of Revenue to release the salary that had been owed to Prince Yu’s mansion for two years.
Even Lu Ying said it was impossible, unless Prince Yu personally bribed Yan Shifan with money. However, Wei Caiwei couldn’t even see Prince Yu, let alone convince the disheartened prince to bow his head and bribe Yan Shifan.
At least Wei Caiwei didn’t have that ability now. She was powerless in this matter, just as she was currently unable to expose Lan Daoxing’s true face. She was too weak.
Soon, a stewardess came to receive Wei Caiwei. The stewardess wore a smiling face and very warmly invited Wei Caiwei into the prince’s mansion carriage.
Wei Caiwei thought: Once I apologize to your prince’s consort, you probably won’t be able to smile anymore.
The carriage actually had a brazier burning, and the brazier contained expensive red charcoal!
Wei Caiwei thought: This reception is too grand! Why would you use red charcoal that even your prince’s consort is reluctant to use for a mere minor female physician like me?
The prince’s consort wouldn’t think I’m coming to tell her good news, would she?
This is bad—the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment.
As she pondered, the carriage started moving. Soon, Wei Caiwei heard clanging sounds. She pulled aside the cotton curtains in the carriage compartment and saw groups of craftsmen repairing crooked or collapsed courtyard walls.
Not only that, but there were also craftsmen holding long bamboo poles, painting the newly repaired courtyard walls with lime. Wall after wall of powdered walls looked brand new, giving them some of the dignity of an imperial prince’s mansion.
If repainting the main gate was for appearances, then repairing the inner courtyard walls was for substance.
Given Prince Yu’s mansion’s current poverty that required pawning items to survive, was there any need to worry about substance?
Wei Caiwei arrived at the inner residence’s rear courtyard with these questions. Li Jiubao was actually wearing a brand-new fox fur coat waiting to greet her at the courtyard gate!
This level of ceremony was too high! Wei Caiwei, who hadn’t brought money and felt guilty about it, got down from the carriage and whispered privately with Li Jiubao, “What’s going on? Why did the prince’s consort have you condescend to greet me? Also, how did your mansion’s potholed roads get repaired so smoothly? Such major changes to Prince Yu’s mansion in less than a month.”
Wei Caiwei was confused, and Li Jiubao was even more confused. “Because Doctor Wei is the savior of Prince Yu’s mansion! You spoke to Minister Yan, and the Ministry of Revenue immediately delivered all the salary that had been owed for two years to the prince’s mansion. With money, the prince’s consort naturally wants to celebrate the New Year properly.”
Wei Caiwei said in shock, “It wasn’t me! I didn’t! That’s impossible! Setting aside that my words carry little weight and I can’t influence anything, I’ve been in the palace all this month and haven’t even seen Minister Yan’s face. How could I have persuaded Minister Yan to return the money?”
Li Jiubao smiled, “Doctor Wei, don’t be so modest. Besides you, the prince’s consort hasn’t asked anyone else for help.”
Author’s Note: Everyone can guess why Minister Yan acted so uncharacteristically. Some readers didn’t understand the author’s note from the last chapter about why it’s three people in a six-way romance. Let me count on my fingers for you: Wang Daxia and Wei Caiwei, male-dressed Lu Ying and Wei Caiwei, female-dressed Lu Ying and Wang Daxia, male-dressed Lu Ying and Wang Daxia, male-dressed Lu Ying with both Wang Daxia and Wei Caiwei (dominating both men and women), and female-dressed Lu Ying and Wei Caiwei. So three people can form six couples, including BL, BG, GL, and even NP. Of course, only one pair is real—the others are all rumors. Now you’re finally… dizzy from it all?